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08-05-2026
WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that the ceasefire with Iran was not over, even as the US and Iran exchanged fire in the Gulf as they wrestled for control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Hegseth said the US had successfully secured a path through the critical waterway and that hundreds of commercial ships were lining up to pass through, as Washington seeks to break a chokehold Iran has asserted on the Strait of Hormuz since the conflict began on February 28.
“We know the Iranians are embarrassed by this fact. They said they control the strait. They do not,” Hegseth told a Pentagon news conference.
The US military says it sank six Iranian small boats and intercepted Iranian cruise missiles and drones, after President Donald Trump sent the navy to escort stranded tankers through the Strait of Hormuz in a campaign he called “Project Freedom.”
Several merchant ships in the Gulf reported explosions or fires on Monday, and an oil port in the United Arab Emirates, which hosts a large US military base, was set ablaze by Iranian missiles.
General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that since the ceasefire was announced on April 7, Iran had fired at commercial vessels nine times and seized two container ships.
He said Iran has attacked US forces more than 10 times.
However, the attacks fell “below the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point,” Caine told reporters.
Asked whether the ceasefire with Iran still held, Hegseth said: “The ceasefire is not over.”
“We said we would defend and defend aggressively and we absolutely have. Iran knows that and ultimately, the president can make a decision whether anything were to escalate into a violation of a ceasefire,” he said.
The operation is Trump’s latest effort to force an end to the disruption of international energy supplies caused by Iran’s blockade of the strait, which carried a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas before the war.
The US Navy is also enforcing a maritime blockade of Iran, which prevents ships from going to Iran or departing Iranian territory.
Hegseth is next asked what happened to Trump’s initial vow to topple the Iranian regime: “When did the president decide to capitulate on his demand for unconditional surrender?”
The president “hasn’t capitulated on anything”, Hegseth fires back. “He holds the cards” and the US maintains “the upper hand”.
He says Trump has “been clear” that this isn’t going to be “some nation-building project”.
Hegseth’s language relatively cautious
The language in this Pentagon news briefing has been relatively cautious, and slightly different than the approach during Operation Epic Fury earlier this year.
Notably, both Secretary Hegseth and Gen Caine insist that, despite exchanges of fire and “kinetic” incidents in the last several days, the ceasefire between the US and Iran continues to hold.
According to Hegseth, the low-level “harassment” by Iranian fast attack boats in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz does not meet the threshold for a return to full-scale combat operations.
They took significant effort to make clear that in the eyes of the US, Project Freedom’s goal of restoring freedom of navigation and commerce in the region are separate to both the blockade against Iranian ports and the wider conflict with Iran. (Int’l News Desk)
